Well its getting nearer to the start of my 12 week Marathon Training schedule. It takes me 12 weeks to get my body fit enough to conquer those 26.2 miles.

I have been running for 2 years and started out running just a mile and then a little more and a little more until I decided I could run a marathon. I found a plan I was happy to follow in my runners world magazine, and set about following It. My twins were just 6 months old when I began to train for my first Marathon, the Chester Marathon which was awarded the UKs Best in 2012 by Runners World readers.

There were many mornings when I could be seen dropping my children at school and then heading off with Doug and the twins in their pram to run a few miles. I had to make time around my work and my family to make sure I put the miles in. I even ran during my house move, from my new house back to my old meeting Doug there, to make sure those miles were done and I had some time with the rest of the family.

My family are all now very used to the fact that I may head off early In the morning to run for up to 2 hours and I am usually out on a Tuesday a Wednesday and a Thursday evening running with the running club or my walk to run group. So much so that my twins who are now two, see me in running tights and hi-vis and say “mummy run”

Marathon training does take up your time you need time to plan, time to run and time to recover. I used to run after our supermarket trip, we would shop together I’d get changed in to running gear and then get dropped how ever many miles from home I needed to be. I have also run to work and back, and on my lunch hour, I’ve been up before 6 in the morning and out until 10 at night.

Everything in life takes time, but if you really want to do something you can make that time.

The other thing with running that takes time is your improvement. I have heard different things but I think on average to reach your full running potential and be the best you can be (if that is your goal) you can take between 6-10 years so do not be disheartened if you do not get a PB on every race. In my 2 years of running I feel I’ve achieved a lot and if I’ve got another 4/6 years of improvements big or small to achieve I cannot wait!!

But wait and work is what I will have to do, because you cannot run a Marathon over night ( that’s most of us anyway) and improvement does not happen over night